IS Water So Over Rated?

 

- 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

- In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

- Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

- One glass of water shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

- Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

- Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

- A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic maths, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

- Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

 

So how about cola...?

- In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

- You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.

- To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China.

- To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Cola.

- To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

- To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

- To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Cola into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Cola will help loosen grease stains.

- It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

- The active ingredient in Cola is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.

- To carry Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

- The distributors of Cola have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is...

Would you like a Cola or a glass of water?

Well, put it like that Davy, and I reckon water will become THE official tipple of all Good Lifers.

All right, maybe with a drop of whiskey with that from time to time. Christmas, birthdays, Tuesdays... you know, special occasions.

Effects of different drinking strategies on basketball skills and performance The performance-depleting effects of dehydration on sport performance have long been known. But what’s the best kind of drink to take to prevent dehydration during exercise and thereby maintain sports performance? That’s the question US scientists set out to investigate in a double blind, randomised study on basketball players at Pennsylvania State University.

Fifteen basketballers (age 12 to 15 years) underwent three separate 2-hour exercise sessions in hot conditions with different drinking strategies:

No drinks consumed leading to 2% dehydration (loss of fluid equivalent to 2% of body mass);
Consumption of a 6% carbohydrate/electrolyte drink to maintain hydration levels (ie 0% dehydration);
Consumption of a flavoured water placebo drink to maintain hydration levels, but with no added carbohydrate/electrolyte.
After each exercise session, there followed a recovery period after which the subjects performed an orchestrated sequence of continuous basketball drills designed to simulate a game (12-min quarters with a 10-min halftime. The researchers looked at a number of performance measures and component drills required during basketball; these included various individual and combined shooting percentages (3-point, 15-foot, free-throw shots), sprints (suicides, court widths), lateral movements (zigzags, lane slides), and defensive drills (combining lateral and front-to-back movement) times.

The results showed that compared with the flavoured water drinking strategy, dehydration significantly impaired shooting ability (as expected), but that consuming the carbohydrate/electrolyte drink improved shooting compared with flavoured water. The same results were found with sprinting performance – ie drinking carbohydrate/electrolyte produced the quickest sprint times, plain water slightly slower times and dehydration marked lower times (76 vs. 78 vs. 83 seconds respectively). Moreover, the carbohydrate/electrolyte drinking strategy significantly improved total defensive drill times compared to no drinking.

This study provides persuasive evidence that using carbohydrate/electrolyte drinks to maintain hydration or re-hydrate at halftime yields superior physical and skills performance to using just plain or flavoured water.